HMC- Return of the Cheeky 500

[HMC]

So true to form the heater blower isn’t working. These seem to share some basic HVAC architecture with the w208 CLK of the period (and presumably the c/ e class) namely a heater blower mounted under a panel in the passenger footwell with an intake water drain without much extra designed in capacity.  Add a few years of roadside crap accumulating and in heavy showers it overflows onto the heater blower. 2 of my previous 3 CLKs also had thoroughly doused heater blower fans as well.

The fuse was good and all other operations (temperature, distribution etc) seemed fine so I took the blower out and cleaned it up. It was stiff and rusty looking. I have a bit of a blind spot for commutators and brushes (and if it’s not actually also the rusty looking resistor pack) It still wasn’t working after this so I’ve ordered a cheap Known good second hand e bay replacement which contains the resistor pack still attached. Fingers crossed.

[montytom]

Wow this is all I'm saying

[bramz7]

9 hours ago, HMC said:

Yes, still got the vandalised w124 (and the Rover 114 ) 

I saw through the mileage history it’s been steadily used year on year, I think they are the sort of car that throw a strop if they are left idle for long periods (my theory will probably be disproven soon)

Well I'll definitely be following this thread with (more) interest (than normal). 

Also, is that really where the rev counter needle rests when the car is off? That REALLY irritates me for some reason. 

[NorthernMonkey]

Oooof....dibs please in due course ??

[BorniteIdentity]

I honestly don't think there's much to be frightened about on these cars.  It's not like the Mercedes w215 where you can only use the brake so many times before you have to either throw it away or give your firstborn to Mercedes.

Great buy.  If something like that turned up in my village right now I'd rip their arm off.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Brilliant. Assuming 20mpg, those 190,000 miles would have munched approx 43187 litres of unleaded. Even at today's low prices (111.4ppl) thats around £48110

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[Hertz]

Looks like a whole lot of car for no doubt a bargain price. Balls of steel and one of my shite heroes.

 

[wuvvum]

21 minutes ago, They_all_do_that_sir said:

Brilliant. Assuming 20mpg, those 190,000 miles would have munched approx 43187 litres of unleaded. Even at today's low prices (111.4ppl) thats around £48110

Sent from my TA-1012 using Tapatalk
 

When this car was new a litre of petrol was about 65p

[Skizzer]

SMOOTH MOVE CAPTAIN.

Bet that’s a lovely thing to roll around in. I do love how eclectic your choices are ?

[83C]

2 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

I honestly don't think there's much to be frightened about on these cars.

Airmatic can throw a wobbly, but is considerably cheaper to deal with than the optional ABC active ride suspension. Rust really hits the pre-facelift W220s hard eventually, remember they were built during Mercedes’ years of being run by the accountants. Electrical faults can completely bork them, ABS and SRS faults are common. The mechanicals are fairly solid, nothing fancy in the diff, gearbox or ‘normal’ petrol engines. The CDI can suffer Black Death with injectors stuck in the head, the S65 V12 kills its coil packs (2 of, and they’re over a grand each.

Thing is, it was a £60-70k car when new, it still needs treating like it is. But despite all that, when they’re working well, they’re magnificent machines to smoke about in. 

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Merc are supposed to be pretty good with parts supply for older models aren't they?

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[dave j]

Nice Merc! Is the Rover still abandoned in a country lane somewhere? 

[Volksy]

Watched with interest, I fancy one of these myself once I get back into the employed world. 

[HMC]

1 hour ago, dave j said:

Nice Merc! Is the Rover still abandoned in a country lane somewhere? 

Funny you should mention that. Finally an oil filter arrived. I cycled back, hacked the old one off (way too tight) and the new one wouldn’t fit. I’d ordered a k series filter but they had supplied me with an A series one. I’d just assumed it was the correct part.

Another dejected cycle back. Then they dispatched the correct part and I’ve just returned from fitting the correct filter; and there is no leak; so for once I returned in the car rather than on my bicycle; By the end of it recon I cycled 30 miles in total ?

[HMC]

5 hours ago, NorthernMonkey said:

Oooof....dibs please in due course ??

I’ve had an earlier dibs but you can have second!

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Merc S Classes are like Range Rovers to me. I like them when they’re new but by the time they’re down to a price I can afford I’m not interested. Then when they get more scarce and prices start creeping up again I want one and can’t afford a nice one. Rinse and repeat.

At the moment a W140 or P38 are the most desirable cars on earth to me and I’m looking at £2000 cars that are rougher than £500 cars 2 or 3 years ago. Consequently, I’ll really want this in 2 or 3 years!

[TrabbieRonnie]

Lovely car!  Was very tempted by a couple of these before plumping for the similiarly-potentially-disastrous-pneumatically-suspended A8...  V8's for the win!  Enjoy!

[dome]

What a fleet! 2 randoms please, on any of them!

[hairnet]

 

you can haz v8 fek off :D

 

[HMC]

So amongst other electrical things not operational, the most pressing at least to me was the main heater blower. I say main for there are 2. A second one lies in the console between the front seats and is controlled by the back seats. That one is (presently) working nicely.

So, I assumed the position 

I decided to not operate the heating or cooling or massage function on the seat, which looking back I regret as my back was getting a bit sore.

Ipulled out the suspected problem

 

And fitting the second hand replacement has fixed the issue. I also cleared the blocked drain channels to avoid this new blower from getting similarly drenched by overflow. Job jobbed!

[Peter C]

Fuck me you’re brave. Nice car though.

[HMC]

”it’s an L. that’s Lang in German. It also has Vier sicherungskasten. That means fucking complicated in English.” (Lit- 4 fuseboxes)

At the facelift they ominously decided that was too many; post facelifts have only 3 fuseboxes. 

[Marm Toastsmith]

Lovely motor.

[twosmoke300]

Hmm . This is dangerous with my history of buying cars off you @HMC ?

[HMC]

@twosmoke300 I hope you’ve got one hell of a multimeter on standby ?

[twosmoke300]

Yeh , oscilloscope the works !

Been a while since I’ve bought a car off you ! Still got the Landy and the Rover 100 was bought off me by a garage nearby but is stored in one of dads sheds still . 
 

[HMC]

On 4/27/2020 at 9:06 AM, bramz7 said:

Well I'll definitely be following this thread with (more) interest (than normal). 

Also, is that really where the rev counter needle rests when the car is off? That REALLY irritates me for some reason. 

In fact no- that’s where the Rev counter sits with the engine running as well........

[HMC]

Whilst I was messing about in the footwell with the heater blower I also noticed the designer sound system speaker grille had long ago fallen off and then been “fixed” (second time lucky) with a self tapper at some point.

Feels a bit like repairing a Taylor made suit with gaffa  tape. That’s where these are right now.

[cort16]

These are great, the engines are pretty bomb proof and there's so many S500 in the scrappies parts are cheap.

[stuboy]

nice buy tried religiously to get one dumped in works car park to get on the road, the £1200 plus vat in parts sent it to the scrapper